Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turned into a smartphone brain scanner

Your smartphone knows some extraordinary things about you. Not only knows who your friends are, your bank details, the places you visit most often and what you like to shop for, but an ever-increasing number of health apps mean it can also track your calorie intake, physical activity, and heart rate. In the next generation of smartphone-based monitoring systems, a group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have demonstrated that the humble Samsung Galaxy Note 2 can be used to monitor your brain’s electrical activity.As well as potential health applications based on monitoring attention, the open-source software can be used in conjunction with consumer-grade EEG headsets as a basis for BCI-based gaming and neurofeedback, creating attractive 3D images in real-time.

The team has been working on the software for several years, with the aim of allowing neuroscientists to record correlates of mental states outside the lab. While the quality of consumer-grade headsets is still substantially below that of conventional lab equipment, it makes whole new experimental designs possible in more natural environments – as well as exciting possibilities for BCI-based gaming and neurofeedback.